The final
Magnus Ridolph story, "Worlds of Origin", was first published in the
February 1958 issue of
Super-Science Fiction. Ridolph was a fan of mathematics and he could have quickly calculated that 10 years passed between publication of the first story in
the series and publication of "Worlds of Origin".
In this blog post, I want to explore the roles that women had in
Jack Vance's Magnus Ridolph stories. I want to pay full respect the realities of the culture that Vance existed in. He lived in a time that was not quite ready for stories about women having adventures in space as equal partners with the male story characters. However, it is worth asking: to what extent was Vance pushing for change and seeking opportunities to give females more interesting roles in his stories?
I got hooked on
Jack Vance's writing when I read
Trullion, which was published in 1973. Before I began reading Vance's short stories, the oldest works of his that I had read were his 1958
The Languages of Pao and the 1964
Star King. There were huge changes in the nature of Sci Fi story telling between the 1950s and the 1970s.
Isaac Asimov, writing in 1983 about "
women and science fiction" (in the
January issue of
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine) said, "
Prior to public recognition in the United States that babies are not brought by the stork, there was simply no sex in the science fiction magazines."
 |
| Trullion, first printing |
I'm not sure when the stork went out of style, but I still have my faded yellow copy of
Trullion that was published in 1973, and we can take it to be a data point midway along the continuum from the "
no sex" era of science fiction to the later works of Vance, particularly
Ecce and Old Earth which stars
Wayness Tamm. Jack Vance lived through the entire transformation of the science fiction genre from its "
no sex" origins to the current age when women can now routinely play important roles in Sci Fi stories (
even in Hollywood).
 |
Traditional roles in science fiction. You
always needed a few women around to wash
dishes or be the daughter of the mad scientist. |
Vance depicted Magnus Ridolph as being very interested in applied mathematics. Ridolph could have put together a statistical analysis of how women were written into both
1) the stories of the
Bible
and
2) golden age science fiction tales. My guess is that such a statistical analysis would reveal a close match between how women were portrayed in the Bible and the roles that they played in early science fiction stories.
Cultural momentum is a powerful force. Vance's Magnus Ridolph stories such as "Worlds of Origin" depict humans from various planets as having their behavior determined by the customs of their world of origin. Science fiction story tellers were no different: they also struggled to break away from traditional depictions of
murderous robots,
evil aliens and domestic women always one step behind the male hero or maybe fluffing his pillow.
In our
Reality, "Worlds of Origin" was written right at an inflection point, a time when some writers were finding inventive ways to provide larger and more interesting roles for women in science fiction stories. "Worlds of Origin" features the anthropologist Lester Bonfils and his miserable destiny of failure and defeat... and, yes, there is a woman lurking behind the sagging and nervous figure of Mr. Bonfils.
Poor Bonfils tells Magnus Ridolph, "
I am harassed by a woman. She is busily engaged in killing me." Then, after provoking some sad compassion from Magnus, Bonfils rushes off, busy with his anthropological endevors.
 |
| In the Ekcolir Reality. |
I like to imagine that in
an alternate Reality, women had a more active role in the development of science fiction as a literary genre. In such an alternate timeline, there could have been
a female analogue of Jack Vance, and some of the Magnus Ridolph stories might have been written somewhat differently, possibly with larger roles for women.
And why should the anthropologist in a story be a man? Yes, in the 1950s, women were very under-represented in scientific professions, but I like to think of science fiction story tellers as being among the first to shift away from traditions and stereotypes. For example, in the 1970s we could finally get a science fiction story like
Assignment: Nor'Dyren by Sydney Van Scyoc which has a female anthropologist.
 |
In the Ekcolir Reality. Vance depicted
the Hub as being a space station
composed of many modular bubbles. |
An idea that Vance incorporated into several of his stories is that for some cultures it is normal for women select the man of her choice and ask him to marry. This is the type of situation that Lester Bonfils ran into while he was on the planet Journey's End. A common feature of Magnus Ridolph stories is that some of the most interesting action takes place off stage, before the events of the story begin. Sadly, we never learn any details about Bonfil's nontraditional courtship at south Kharesmon on Journey's End.
Ridolph and Bonfils meet at a space station called the Hub, a place where folks (including aliens) from both near and far worlds of the galaxy come and go, arriving aboard passing spaceships. In particular, while relaxing in the lobby of the Hub, Ridolph takes note of a woman who Vance describes as having "
miraculous beauty". The description continues: "
She was dark and slight, with a complexion the color of clean desert sand; she carried herself with a self-awareness that was immensely provoking."
 |
| In the Ekcolir Reality. |
The proprietor of the Hub, Pan Pascoglu, informs Ridolph that this dazzling woman claims to be the wife of Bonfils, but strangely, Bonfils and the woman are never seen together. That night, Bonfils dies and in the morning, Pascoglu admits that there is no security force at the Hub and he asks Ridolph to help figure out who killed Bonfils. How can Ridolph refuse?
Pascoglu provides Ridolph with a list of everyone at the Hub who arrived on the same spaceship with Bonfils. On that list is "Fiamella of Thousand Candles", the immediately obvious suspect. Ridolph is not satisfied with the list of suspects; he demands that Pascoglu provide information about their worlds of origin. Pascoglu is useless, so Ridolph spends a few hours doing research in the Hub's library, investigating the diverse cultures of the suspects.
 |
| Ridolph interviews suspects in the library. |
When interviewed by Ridolph, Fiamella is pleased that Bonfils is dead, but she denies having blasted a hole in his head. Ridolph soon learns that Fiamella selected Bonfils as her husband and then threatened to kill him when he tried to leave her behind on her home world, Journey's End. When Fiamella explains that her preferred method of killing is to "
kill by love", Ridolph is intrigued. He and Fiamella flirt for a bit, but they both agree that the gray-haired Magnus is too old for the spunky Fiamella.
 |
| In the Ekcolir Reality |
Sadly, Vance could go no further in his exploration of Fiamella's special talents (what Vance calls her ability to inflict "
death by means of amorous attrition"); it was 1958 and the science fiction genre was still emerging from its era of self-censorship. I suspect that Vance was trying to imply that in order to regain her honor, Fiamella was prepared to stalk and harass Bonfils across the vast expanses of interstellar space until either he relented and accepted her as wife and companion or until he died. Fiamella seems pleased that Bonfils died so quickly: now she can return home, her honor regained.
Solving crimes by telepathy
 |
| In the Ekcolir Reality. |
You'll have to read the story to discover who killed Bonfils and why at the end of the story Pascoglu fears that he will be the next victim. The alien who appears on the list of suspects as
(no name) is a Meth of Maetho, who has a somewhat human appearance but a totally different internal biology. Vance hints that this creature from the planet Hecate has telepathic powers and seems to know who killed Bonfils. However, the alien says, "...
the person involved wishes his deed to pass unnoticed, and why should I disoblige him?" This attitude infuriates Pascoglu. Pascoglu and the alien trade threats. The alien claims to be able to unleash a plague of alien spores upon the Hub and Pascoglu can do nothing but insist the alien depart on the next spaceship and never return to the Hub.
Related Reading:
celebrating Jack Vance in 2020
Next: I read my
10th Magnus Ridolph story
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